Mumbai: Three more witnesses were examined on Friday in the Sohrabuddin encounter case, of whom one was dropped, while the other two stood by their earlier statements to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Both witnesses were from the police department of Palanpur — Constable Manjibhai Chaudhary and Assistant Sub-Inspector Jivanbharti Manabharti Goswami. Chaudhary was in charge of maintaining the police control room log book at Palanpur.
Jivanbharti, while supporting his earlier statements, told of the fax message he had received a night before Tulsiram Prajapati was shot dead and the call he had received on the morning of the fateful incident. Jivanbharti was on night duty on December 27, 2006, at the police control room in Palanpur, when around 1.30am, he received a fax from Railway Police regarding the escape of an accused. He informed the VHF operator, instructing him to pass on the message to the district authorities.
In addition to his earlier statements about the morning of December 28, 2006, Jivanbharti said he had received a call from SP Vipul Aggarwal around 6.15am, informing about an encounter in Ambaji. Around 6.30am, Aggarwal again called and told him when PSI Ashish Pandya was on his night round on the roads of Ambaji, at 5am, he had tried to stop a van and the three people in the van began firing, injuring Pandya in the process. When Pandya fired back in response, one of the three people died on the spot.
The examination of the witnesses in this case will continue on Saturday.
IPS officer seeks discharge
IPS officer Vipul Aggarwal, an accused in the Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case, on Friday sought discharge, claiming parity with former Gujarat ATS chief D G Vanzara and others who have got a similar relief. Aggarwal, whose discharge plea was rejected by a special CBI court here last November, has moved the Bombay High Court. The trial court had held that there was sufficient material against him to frame charges for participating in the conspiracy to kill Prajapati and to destroy evidence.